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Valari collaborated with architect Simona Serafino to design the landscaping around the pool area with a rocky garden, vegetable patch, and orange garden with a beach volley court. There is also a hammock area near the centuries-old olive garden.

"The geometry creates varied spatial experiences—expansion and contraction horizontally and vertically—reinforcing the series of stepped courtyards," says architect Andrew Simpson.

Tall steel-and-glass doors open to the backyard and bring some understated drama.

The back of the home and its soaring glass-and-concrete addition create a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces, and the rear garden and the pool feel like "a secret refuge."

A lattice covering the guest bedroom’s patio dapples the sunlight, and its porous design also makes it less prone to deformity in the damp, salty winds, says architect Jorge Manieu.

It was important to make the home as fire-resistant as possible, granted its wooded Northern California site. (Natalie is on the board of the wildfire council.) The Harrisons pulled the siding off the house and put it through a shou sugi ban treatment — contractors created a giant burn box and roasted the whole pile. “It feels earthy, and also like you never have to treat it again,” explains Natalie. “We found people to actually do this—they burn it, and put it back up.”

A detached garage and guesthouse/studio creates a buffer between a busy street and the rest of the property, which includes the main house as well as a pool, sauna, and pond, so that life in the residence can feel more private and secluded.

“The idea was to create this total openness and informality and almost undomesticated domestic space,” says Leven. The concrete is textured by its forms on the outside but smooth where it cuts into the building—“almost as though you sliced into it with a knife,” adds the designer.

An original fireplace anchors one of the primary living spaces, while strategic skylights and glass doors ensure the interiors are consistently bathed in natural light.

In Willunga, South Australia, husband-and-wife duo Adam and Sarah Hall tastefully renovated an 1870 church with a reverence for its historic elements.

Northcote House by Mitsuori Architects / kitchen and study

The windows turn into doors with a twist of the handle, a standard design in Switzerland says the docent.

Designed in the early 1950s by architect Roscoe Hemenway for the inventor of the famous View–Master toy, this ranch house was reimagined by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for enhanced views, light, and indoor/outdoor connection.

Dowell Residence Floor Plan

explains the listing agent.

The rear of the garage and studio is fitted with a slatted screen, which creates unique shadows on the stairwell and inside the unit. The outdoor room also benefits from views of the lake and is anchored by a two-sided, white brick fireplace.